Fascinare
by WhisperWeeper
Summary: When his entire life plan burns to a crisp one day, Vash Zwingli is forced to give up his dreams and start anew. Now saddled with taking care of his younger sister and an unpleasant injury, he attempts to make the best of it. Sometimes making the best of things meant finding an old letter and following its directions. -Violence, PTSD, Mature, Supernatural, Aus/Swiss


**Hearing an alluring voice in the night, Vash tries not to fade too far.**

**...xXx...**

The drive was long, the fog thick, and for the dozenth time static lapsed over the quiet radio. A regular happening for a remote mountain road. Vash turned it off.

The dashboard clock read, _2:56am._

The man exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck. His sister was sound asleep in the passenger seat, her soft breathing drowned out by the heater. She was holding the map, but he didn't want to wake her by retrieving it.

Vash felt he would go mad if another pair of headlights didn't appear soon. He was sure he would jump out of his skin if some actually did, however. Hours of driving through cloudy darkness was wearing on him. By then they had taken so many twists and turns, over the hills and along cliffs, that he was unsure which direction they were heading in anymore.

And if they passed one more deer crossing sign he was going to scream.

Vash regretted not stopping for the night at a motel. The last one he'd seen was hours ago. Not because he was tired. He couldn't sleep even if he wanted to.

It was this damn fog.

Several miles passed the last rest stop the mist had suddenly descended upon the stretch of road they turned onto. Claustrophobic, like a blanket wrapped too tightly around the silver Buick. Leave it to August to have the hottest days and coolest nights to cause such a curtain to befall him while on unfamiliar roads.

Vash would have been less irritated if there were more road signs. Not that he could have seen them until they were passing him, but their presence alone would have soothed him. Something other than nothing. Or, at least, something other than the _fucking hundredth_ deer crossing sign. There was no way to tell if there were massive amounts of deer living in the hills or if he was just disoriented enough to have wound his way around passed the same one, over and over again. He glanced at his own green eyes in the rearview mirror.

_That sounds like my kind of luck._

Thankfully, he'd filled up the gas tank at the last rest stop. Vash leaned back in his seat with a sigh, one hand on the steering wheel and the other tucking the loose sides of his blond hair behind his ears. He was grateful that he'd let it grown out to nearly his shoulders, the longer strands keeping his ears warm now that the weather was turning cold.

Resting his left arm in his lap, Vash settled himself for driving until dawn.

There was a sudden mechanical hum, a _click,_ and then soft violin music came to life from the radio. Vash glanced at the central dash, eyebrows raised. He didn't think he'd ever seen it do that before. Maybe it had something to do with the static earlier.

He flipped the radio back off. _Well, that was weird._

A few quiet minutes passed and it happened again. Vash turned it off again. The radio clicked back on almost immediately. The man frowned, his finger hovering over the dial.

He finally gave up trying to turn off the music, chocking the persistence up to wiring issues. If the car wanted something to listen to, then so be it.

The text along the glowing dash scrolled to show the name of the song, a violin melody, and the composer; neither of which Vash had ever heard of before. His father used to listen to easy instrumental music all the time, so the tune hardly bothered him.

Vash patted his jean pocket absently.

It had been quite a few years since the last time they'd driven to the Upper Peninsula. Seven, at least. The last time he'd been up north like this was the summer before basic training. His parents had taken him and Lilli to their favorite spot in Sault Ste. Marie to go walleye and pike fishing, an annual family tradition. His father had even let him drive the Buick.

Now it was his Buick, and neither he nor his sister had been back to the U.P. since that last summer.

_Maybe we could take a trip next year, _Vash thought. He spared a soft look towards his sleeping sibling. _Just the two of us._

At least the drive would be shorter this time around.

The little, unknown town of Sable, Michigan, was to be their new home. Moving to the Northern U.P. from the Thumb was easy when all they had to bring could fit in their car. The fact that after everything that had happened to them this past year, that they would have someplace to live at all was a massive relief.

According to a lockbox at the bank and a particular line in his mother's will there was a lone property in the U.P. that was now his. Fifty acres of woodland and an old cottage that he had no idea his parents were paying property taxes on.

Vash couldn't recall ever going to Sable before. He hadn't even heard of the town until recently. His mother used to tell him that they'd lived up north when he was very young, but would never say exactly _where. _If this place wasn't it, then he'd eat his boot.

The violin song at last faded into silence. Vash was just pondering if the radio had turned _itself_ off when a voice spoke through the airwaves.

_"Welcome back, all of you lost souls out there. I've missed you."_

The voice was that of a man, light and smooth. His cadence was refined and accented, sounding strangely sincere over the course of a few small sentences. Vash felt himself momentarily drawn in by the mysterious radio host.

_"Oh, can you feel it?"_ the voice carried on, his words tilting like a foreign melody. _"There's something in the air, something rather electric. The midnight hour has long since passed us by, yet the night continues to leave us surprises."_

Vash had no idea what the man was on about, but he supposed it _was_ pretty late. Those on the radio could talk about whatever nonsense they pleased. The host's voice was weirdly pleasant to listen to, anyways, though the blond was sure that came with the job.

_"Could something be coming, or someone?" _the radio host said._ "Perhaps returning. After all, most souls don't wander far, or for very long. They all end up home sooner or later, and I suppose we can take that as a comfort." _There was a brief pause._ "How odd. The very earth appears to be waiting. On a clear night like this? It feels like a budding storm on the horizon, a bated breath. It feels as if something astounding could happen tonight."_

Vash watched another deer sign drift by along the right side of the road. He scoffed quietly to himself, "I'm astounded!"

_"I wonder what it will be, this thing. This storm. I hope it will be kind to the wayward travelers who are taking their own paths this evening."_ The man looked at the radio dial, his eyebrows furrowing at the host's choice of words.

_"For those of you tonight who are feeling more lost than most, I have a message fore you: Everything is going to be all right. Making your own trail isn't easy, and there are many dangers around every corner. Trust in yourself to be your own guide. I want you to know that I am with you in spirit and voice, if not in person."_

The car interior became devoid of sound as the host paused once more for the moment. When his voice returned it was softer than before, abnormally so.

_"The next request is for a lullaby. Let your eyes close, little souls, and drift away with me. Delilah, this is for you."_

Lifting a shaky finger, Vash turned the radio off.

_What?_ he thought. _What the fuck was that?_ Vash let go of the breath he'd been holding and cleared his throat. He couldn't help but be dazed over what the radio host had said. He knew it was dumb, but for some reason it felt as if the man had spoken that last line _only_ to him. As if the shadow behind the voice were sitting in the backseat with them, whispering into his ear. It felt too real. Vash shivered.

Or maybe it was because that was his mother's name.

_A coincidence,_ his mind offered. _You're just tired and getting sentimental._

Vash agreed to ignore it and pressed further down on the pedal, speeding up a little.

Three more of those infernal diamond signs passed him by over the next short while, and just as he was zoning out to the sound of the soft engine the fog in front of him began to lighten up. The clouds gradually became brighter and whiter, and as he squinted through the dense mist he could see the vague shape of another sign and a single lamp hanging over the road.

At last, a beacon in the dark appeared. Vash brought the car to a stop at the light, obeying the _thankfully-not-deer_ stop sign. In fact, the stop sign was so worn and the red so pale that the only visible letter were the "S" and "O."

It was a three-way intersection. The road continued forward parallel along the hills and ghostly trees, or it turned to the right, disappearing towards the dark face of the mountain.

Vash leaned over and squinted at the map under his sister's arm. The dim yellow streetlight was just uncooperative enough in letting him see that it gave him a headache. He sat back in his seat and sighed.

This was the first intersection he'd seen in over an hour, and there weren't even street names posted. What kind of logic was that? First the bizarre radio and now missing signs._ Where am I even going?_

Debating whether or not to turn around and head back for that little rustic motel, he spotted movement outside of the car window. A vague shape moved through the fog; clearly enough to catch his eye, yet strange enough to be indistinguishable.

Vash watched as the shape glided through the mist, like a fish in the deep. He kept his green gaze locked to it as the figure made its way passed the driver's side towards the intersection. Once under the light the shadow came to a stand still.

Vash blinked.

It was a deer. Of course it was. Thankfully he'd already stopped the car before the creature appeared on the road.

However, as he was holding back a groan in the back of his throat, he realized the size of it. The stag was easily taller than the poor Buick, its impressive antlers grazing the bottom of the hanging street lamp.

_What the hell?_ Vash leaned forward, squinting through the haze to attempt to count how many points the stag sported. _That's not a moose, is it?_

Underneath the pale light the stag was entirely black—a perfect silhouette of his state's baneful mascot.

The deer swiveled its head. The creature seemed unaware of the vehicle and its driver, both staring at the stag with wide eyes. Vash felt a crawling sensation across his skin.

Then, without so much as a goodbye, the deer took three steps across the road and disappeared into the tree line.

Vash turned the car around for the night.

**...xXx…**

**An idea I've had sitting on the back burner for awhile now, so I figured I'd finally start posting for it. Get ready for lots of spooks, scares, and snuggling. Strap in, folks, while I stretch my supernatural storytelling skills!**

**Happy Halloween! :)**


End file.
